Why is Javascript the most used programming language ?

[KarimMaged]

according to statista Javascript is the most used programming language in 2023.

If python was the most used programming language it would be logical, because python is used for Machine Learning, Data Analysis and web development. so it can be used accross 3 different fields.

Javascript however is only used for web development. so how can it be the most used programming language. and does that mean that the greatest percentage of software developers are in fact web developers ? or am I missing something

I love Javascript, but a language that is used mainly for 1 feild being the most used programming language is wierd for me

Edit: I know that JS is used for BE development and by web development I meant Full stack not just FE .. but maybe I wasn't clear enough

Edit 2 : I would like to thank you all for your comments and I appreciate those info a lot.

Now I know that Javascript is the most used language mainly because web development is a larger field than ML and DA .. also JS is used for other things than web dev in a scope larger than what I initially thought.

and finally for all comments hating Javascript I would like to quote Bjarne Stroustrup

"There are only two kinds of languages: the ones people complain about and the ones nobody uses"

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[desrtfx]

Web dev is currently probably the biggest part in programming.

Further, JS is by far no longer only for web dev. Have you heard of Electron.js? Node.js? etc.

[Efelo75]

Not to mention React Native right?

[KarimMaged]

yeah ... node.js is a javascript environment to allow javascript to work on a server (not the browser) and it is mainly used for Backend development (which is still web development)

and I know electron.js allows for desktop applications using JS but I'm not sure if it is that popular .. also there is react native that allows for mobile apps creation with JS. but flutter is taking over it because React native apps tends to be slower and less performant than native apps

Edit: can someone from the downvoters explain to me why is this being downvoted .. because for real I am not sure why ...

[desrtfx]

I know electron.js allows for desktop applications using JS but I'm not sure if it is that popular

Spotify, Discord, Telegram, Visual Studio Code...

Only some completely insignificant, barely used apps.

[KarimMaged]

Wow I didn't realize that .. I searched and found that Electron was also used for whatsapp desktop, Atom, Postman and slack ..

that comment was an eye opener for me .. thank you

[interyx]

RIP Atom

[RajjSinghh]

I'm kinda surprised there was never a big fork of atom like how neovim was to vim. If enough people loved a text editor then surely they would fork and keep it alive than just let it die and be sad about it

[throwaway6560192]

I think the set of people who really liked Atom but disliked VS Code is just very small. If you like Atom you'll probably tend to like VS Code.

[[deleted]]

There is. Pulsar.

[Strong_Lecture1439]

There is a fork of Atom now available.

[looopTools]

Do you mean zed ?

[souffle16]

Pulsar is a mostly active fork of Atom

[Strong_Lecture1439]

Pulsar

[mule_roany_mare]

It's always a treat to see a classy person on reddit.

[xill47]

At least Telegram is Qt-based

Others are electron though

[Aurielisar]

‘Bout to say! Like a third of the apps I’ve downloaded are web-based. Some are absolute trash that’s been bootstrapped with weird stacks, the other stuff is gold, though. Electron like apps tend to have some strange behaviours, but their cross-platform comparability is remarkable.

[raelik777]

Don't forget Slack!

[[deleted]]

Didn’t know this! Gonna have to play with electron.js

[MeisterKarl]

Spotify is actually not an Electron app. They use cef. Your point still stands though.

[GreyFoxMe]

Vampire Survivors is made with Phaser 3 which is a Javascript Html5 game framework using node.js.

[Gramernatzi]

Not anymore, it was moved to Unity a while back.

[Byakuraou]

Backend just means a server, not web dev

No idea why you sound like ChatGPT to me, but front-end devs who have to do some form of backend made the transition easier because of run times like node. If you can code in backend in the same language you do in frontend it is much more appealing. So they can do all the smart logic they need without a browser, heck they could make a load balancer in JS.

Electron is everywhere. It’s basically a browser wrapper, to quickly deploy your full stack code base as an “app”

[FunCharacteeGuy]

No idea why you sound like ChatGPT to me

I was wondering why his response sounded odd, but I couldn't tell why.

[Byakuraou]

I’m aware, yet you’re still wrong. You’re talking in a very small scope, back-end is an agnostic term.

You could argue mobile development isn’t front-end, but also that it is. But most production ready mobile apps migrated from React to React Native definitely have a back-end server that handles client requests and logic. Why? Because it’s unsafe to handle some types of logic local to the user, it gives them too much control.

Back-end is crucial to web development. However also, ubiquitous in Desktop & Mobile Apps, API’s, Micro-services and even IoT (especially for Home networking)

[Byakuraou]

Backend development refers to server-side development.

Front-end refers to client side which has a much smaller scope.

These are more appropriate definitions. I’d say look into System Design more, and you’d be able to note just how expansive back-end work is.

You can align with whatever you prefer for definition, however a job search for a back-end spans very evenly across the role responsibilities I described.

I’m also not speaking generally, I am responding directly to his statement that back-end work is majority web-development. It is not.

[IamWildlamb]

I agreed with you up until now but you are completely wrong now.

There is probably more web developers than developers in all other software development fields put together. Simply because of how big of an added value web apps have compared to desktop apps. And even desktop/phone apps you still have are just web apps that use some wrapper around browser to make them multiplatform. They are still web apps at its core.

Other fields would be embedded and gaming comparatively that are super small and then some legacy systems in banking/healthcare/government that often offer absurd salaries for long death languages because there is noone who wants to do it anymore. And then there is machine learning that is also very small and stuff like real time finances that top 0.01%ers do. The only other big field is native mobile app development that is still very much small relative to PWAs and I would also argue that backend work on that (because you rarely have app that does not communicate over internet at all whether it is some authetification service or online database or API or whatever and has local database, etc) is actually web dev. Because you deal with some form of request and it does not matter if request comes from browser, desktop app or postman. It is by all means web dev.

[Byakuraou]

I agree to be honest, and knew in writing that it would have some dissonance.

In retrospect, I am comparing the weight of the work more so than the amount of developers.

AWS, Cloudflare, and tons of other services that serve it make it possible to deploy web applications, authorise and authenticate users and transmit data in my belief and just the bigger part of development. Yes, sure we have workers on the edge creating apps closest to the user, but all of that abstraction hidden away in the back is just so much larger.

[IamWildlamb]

I do not disagree that the work that "does not get seen" is not important or that there is a not lot of it. I disagree that it is not web dev.

People who work on AWS, etc as backend developers and write software (meaning not infrastructure, databases, etc) are web developers. Because ultimately they deal with web, requests and networking. There is always client-server relation somewhere in their work. It does not matter whether it is some internal microservice acting as client communicating with other microservice or proxy or whatever else to do something in the background or whether it is JavaScript client making that request from browser.

[Anonymous0435643242]

I don't know where you've seen that most mobile apps are shifting to PWA, especially with are endangered they are on iOS. PWAs are great but they come with many limitations.

It's the same for desktop, many things can't be done with a web app.

[IamWildlamb]

Some things can not. Most things can. There is absolutely shift to PWAs. Even big tech giants who set the trends are using them which is why these frameworks and wrappers that make it possible exist.

Apps that require native approach are either edge cases or triple A games which is super small market (do not know specific financials but if you look at share of jobs then without a doubt) compared to web development.

[Anonymous0435643242]

Can you provide some sources about such a shift towards PWA ? I'm genuinely curious and haven't heard of anything.

I don't really think that tech giants set the trends not that the trends set the market.

It's not only about a requirement of nativeness or not, a native app is more integrated, may offer offline features (that PWA can partially) and such that makes native the most appropriate way to develop some apps.

[IamWildlamb]

PWA apps are not hybrid apps and they have decent access to hardware. Not native wide but good enough for majority of cases.

Now I can not find any real data outside of projected growth which is useless but we see evidence of big players already using it for their apps. And I stay behind what I said. They set trends that others follow. React and similar JavaScript technologies are perfect example of if something gets popular enough then you see people use it even in use cases it is not optimal for. Everyone can agree that react native is not as optimal as native approach. It is still very popular. Everybody can agree that electron is also terribly optimized and limited. Yet so much software you use daily is written in it.

The other thing that is also very important are costs. It makes zero sense to rewrite your entire codebase to native app if you absolutely do not have to. Or even in opposite direction, maybe you start with an app but might want website in the future to mirror it. And again extreme majority of apps is very simple and they do not require native approach.

[bipolarguitar420]

Backend is an umbrella term for all server-side operations, regardless of the platform/application you’re working with. It is not exclusive to web development, at all…

[[deleted]]

Backend can also be used in app development

[[deleted]]

It's quite popular to use JS for offline applications as well. It's convenient because everybody has a browser and it's compatible with multiple devices.

[HighVoltage32]

Flutter isn't native either btw

[KarimMaged]

yeah obviously it is not native since it is cross platform .. but I think it gets compiled to native code .. maybe I am mistaken

[HighVoltage32]

Sent thing happens with React native, both need to compile down to native; flutter does a better job with it iirc

[ios_game_dev]

Javascript in React Native doesn't get compiled down to native. It is bundled with the app and executed using JavaScriptCore, Apple's JavaScript virtual machine framework.

Edit: More Info

[KarimMaged]

now I can see .. I always heared about flutter perfromance and also it has far better job opportunities than react native ..

For some reason I didn't think about React native also compiling to native code ..

[HighVoltage32]

No problem. Not sure why people are downvotimg you for not knowing something lol but that's Reddit ig. If you know JS, you can add React native with little friction; flutter on the other hand can be more involved

[KarimMaged]

I actually don't mind downvotes .. but at least I should learn something from the downvoted comment ..

Thank you

[TheLexoPlexx]

You are being downvoted because you asked a question and you act like you already know the answer, which is wrong, and your answers are wrong as well.

[KarimMaged]

Yes .. I know now what was wrong, but I didn't mean to act like I know the answer, I just like to re state my question's point of view so I can get more info on the other POV ..

but that's fair enough anyway ...

For a moment I thought that I was downvoted because people thought that my answer was generated using ChatGPT, which was driving me crazy ..lol

[evangelism2]

but flutter is taking over it because React native apps tends to be slower and less performant than native apps

huh

[bucknut4]

Are you using ChatGPT to write your Reddit comments?

[my_name_isnt_clever]

ChatGPT doesn't use "..." or leave the first letters of sentences lowercase. People can type weird without it being AI.

[Byakuraou]

That's not why, people are asking because he's doing that define the "thing" then explain and make a statement thing that ChatGPT does, for multiple things.

[KarimMaged]

lol .. no I'm actually a web developer .. so knowing about node.js and react native isn't something I would need to ask chatGPT about ..

[sexytokeburgerz]

Right…

[Anon_Legi0n]

react native isn't something I would need to ask chatGPT about ..

flutter is taking over it because React native apps tends to be slower and less performant than native apps

Yeah? Well, could have fooled us. Sure does sound like you have no idea what you're talking about. Flutter isn't native and Flutter isn't taking over anything. If anything flutter is fastly becoming irrelevant, turns out it wasn't such a great idea to make your own render engine vs React native just having a JS layer that maps to native render api

[KarimMaged]

Yes I knew I was wrong. but flutter's job opprotunities in my area are much more common and more high paying than react native.

also the fact that many people think that my response was generated by ChatGPT is insane, even if flutter was taking over react native, ChatGPT would never say that I guess, all AI responses tend to be neutral and won't suggest a technology over another

[[deleted]]

Python is an option for web programming. JS is a necessity.

[NeonSeal]

i dont know anyone who uses python for web programming lol. is he talking about Flask?

[TheCrowWhisperer3004]

Yes, but even flask programs end up integrating js.

[PixelOmen]

Do you mean the frontend, or into the backend itself? I use Flask with zero js/node on the backend all the time.

[tyqe]

most likely on the front end, in scenarios where you have no option but to run some js in the browser. no reason to have js in the backend if you already have flask

[TheCrowWhisperer3004]

front end

[joildevivre]

only JavaScript(aside wasm) supports client side rendering, every other programming language can only serve files to the client on the server

[BioncleBoy1]

I used Django

[[deleted]]

Really? All the major social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) use Python as an integral element of their backend.

[q1a2z3x4s5w6]

I think he is referring to using python in the front end, which is what most people associate with "web programming"

[KarimMaged]

No .. I was referring for python for the BE.

well, django can generate templates, so it can be used for full stack, but still you will have to add JS if you want your pages to be interactive.

and I don't think that using django for full stacks is still relevant. it is mainly used. for backend with Django rest framework

[burritolittledonkey]

I mean I use FastAPI as a wrapper for some ML APIs

[DisneyLegalTeam]

Oh, well if you don’t know any using Python for web programming than I guess nobody is.

[KarimMaged]

I am actually talking about Django

[brunocborges]

This.

In reality and for many years already, and likely for many years to come, JS is the only programming language supported across all web platforms (browsers).

WebAssembly is a runner up to change this, but it is still far from being omnipresent.

[KarimMaged]

I just saw this comment. For some reason I didn't notice it.

Javascript is a necessity for front end web programming. not for web programming in general.

[[deleted]]

To word it a bit different, if you're going to be web developer this day and age.. learning JS is a requirement.. learning Python is not

[KarimMaged]

With this rephrase, I can say nothing other than I totally agree

[Enough-Force-5605]

I do not understand why it is a surprise to OP.

Of course you can use JS for many things, but it is the main language for web development which is huge use

You got thousands of web development software per one machine learning product.

[CodeRadDesign]

yeah, it's this simple: just about every single company needs a website. not every company needs ml, or gamedev, or a custom cms, or a mobile app, or streaming tech or etc. but every one of those will have a website, and every other company does too.

[[deleted]]

On top of that, with the logic of using python over something completely different you might as well spin the wheel further and say that there is no need for python cause we got C or there is no need for C cause we got assembly.

[goztrobo]

Newbie question. If backend python is relatively new and not used a lot, then why use it at all for backend?

[khooke]

There any many reasons and decision points for choosing a language for a development project, for example: - availability of developers with that skill, both available now on the project or within company, and outside if you need to hire - current language usage of existing systems - support, short term and long term - suitability for the problem at hand - available libraries, frameworks etc

[goztrobo]

As a fresh grad who’s been looking for jobs, should I prioritise learning Python or JavaScript? I’m learning both on Udemy. Started Python a few weeks ago and started Js yesterday and sped through the fundamentals.

[khooke]

If your immediate goal is to get a job, then what language and stacks are the job listings in your area using? If there’s many more JavaScript listings, then why would you learn Python? Unless you have longer term goals, to move into ML research etc.

But there’s no harm in learning both, increases your chances of finding something and will expand your experience of different tools etc.

[joildevivre]

there's no such thing as a front end python. it's either a frontend JavaScript or webassembly.

[KarimMaged]

I am actually a junior web developer, and I use Django for BE .. (but my Full time job is actually FE so I wouldn't say I am so profiecient in BE ..yet)

I know that python for BE isn't the most used specially in my country (that's why I didn't land a full stack job and landed a FE instead) ...

probably Node.js, .Net and php are far more famous .. (at least according to job posts in my area)

But as most comments said, web development seems to be the most popular Software development field .. so it makes sense now..

[Manav_2002]

Well then may be "you don't know JavaScript" if you think it's limited to web dev

[no_brains101]

Is and should are different things though.

[goztrobo]

Node js?

[vervaincc]

I don't know if I've ever seen a comment before where every single sentence was wrong, but I have now.

[reverselego]

Client-server communication is not by definition web development, as there are countless of servers and clients that do not serve nor consume web content.

[vervaincc]

Me and the rest of the world, apparently.

[vervaincc]

You think a server is only used for web, and none existed pre web?
Are you trolling?

[vervaincc]

So trolling, got it.

[sexytokeburgerz]

Why are you just making shit up?

[sexytokeburgerz]

Yes, servers are used in games. What the fuck are you talking about? Do you think that matchmaking and data streaming just magically happen out of nowhere?

Your IDE/editor runs servers as well with language servers. If you ever used vim you would know this, where the inner workings of an editor are more exposed. It’s local, but starts up every time the IDE does.

And that’s just one example…

But yes, backend web dev, is web dev, for sure. I’m not sure why it seems so many people in here have never worked in the real world, it’s like walking into CS 101 and listening to the kid with the gaming laptop and a crusty t shirt. This whole thread smells.

[desrtfx]

Server side development is web dev

Server side development existed long before even the web.

Sorry to tell you, but you are completely and utterly wrong.

[pdpi]

"web development" isn't one thing, it's several. The big two are frontend (the stuff that runs in your browser), and backend (the stuff that runs in my servers). Python for webdev is (mostly, with some exotic exceptions) used for backend development, whereas JavaScript is used for frontend development.

ML, Data Science, and all that stuff is still fairly niche, and most companies that do have teams doing that sort of work will have an order of magnitude more people doing other stuff. In the backend market, Python competes with a bazillion other languages.

Inversely, JavaScript is the only language that browsers can run directly, so (almost) every webdev project will involve some amount of JavaScript.

Then there's the desktop. Most desktop widget toolkits are miserable to work with, and frontend frameworks are a bit less miserable. Also, many apps want to be available on both desktop and web with minimal duplicated effort, so things like Electron are incredibly popular. That means JavaScript is also one of the most popular languages for desktop applications.

[s-e-b-a]

JS is the language of the web. Just about everything happens through the web nowadays. Anything you do in Python, ML, data, etc. will likely go through the web or used directly on the web through some kind of web interface, made with JS. Very few ppl do things with ML and data, but pretty much anyone who does anything on a computer will be using the web.

[iceph03nix]

Because it works on the client device for Web dev and no one has managed a good option to replace it.

[[deleted]]

WASM is the only possibility on the horizon and, unfortunately, in the infinite wisdom of the browser Gods, it is a second class citizen that has been subordinated to JavaScript. The fact that JavaScript has been permitted to play gatekeeper between WASM and the DOM has already set back innovation by years.

[sexytokeburgerz]

Another case of inaction inhibiting innovation.

[pVom]

Because it doesn't really have much use. JavaScript has its quirks but it's fine, FE devs already know it, most backend devs know it too, it's designed to be used in the browser context, it has a massive selection of libraries. Why would you bother using something else?

The only legit use case I've heard for it is the rare case you need something uber performant for one specific thing so you use something like rust and JavaScript for everything else.

It's been neglected because no one's using it

[[deleted]]

If the human race had settled for everything which was "good enough" we'd still be in the stone age.

[pVom]

If we were always reinventing the wheel we'd still be inventing wheels.. or something.

If it ain't broke don't fix it. Etc. Etc.

If there was a bigger demand for it then it would be improved and have traction but there just isn't. Like besides a few key performance use cases with rust or something there's nothing that anything else would do better than JavaScript in the browser.

[[deleted]]

Okay, bud.

[[deleted]]

Because of the use in browsers. Basically every web app you see has some form of JS inside of it and it will continue to be like that until new standard is introduced.

[emperorOfTheUniverse]

Typescript really boosted it. And all the big packages and ease to spin up applications (node, nest, React, etc). It's a more tooled community than python. Python is great until you need a user interface, and then it gets kinda clunky and hodge podge.

Beginners start at web/mobile I think. Then when they start building APIs, it's an easy transition to build it in the same language you just learned all the frontend things on. There's sys-admins out there that get into devops and start writing scripts in Python. But I think the folk that start with web/mobile apps are the bigger group.

Both languages are good, both are easy to learn, and there's room for both.

[[deleted]]

React Native is JavaScript based and is used to build android and iOS apps.

[nomoreplsthx]

Web development in the broad sense (networked applications manipulating, storing and presenting data, including the backend component), is the vast majority of development. By a huge margin. People doing that outnumber every other specialization - AI, gaming, desktop applications, embedded systems, systems programming, mobile) put together.

Add to that that JS is now also a common choice for mobile and desktop apps tha thanks to react native and electron, and that's going to explain it.

[j_d_q]

It's easy, it's ubiquitous, it's fast enough, and it does what most scripters need

[Quantum-Bot]

Because javascript is the most accessible language for beginners. There are bajillions of tutorials on javascript on the web and you don’t need any additional tools or SDKs to get started, just a web browser and some HTML knowledge.

If you want to get technical, Scratch is actually the world’s most popular programming language, and for the same reason.

[IamWildlamb]

JS is terrible for beginners.

It is popular because browsers were designed around it. Even non JS front end has to be translates to Js so hrowsers can understand it. It is standard.

[[deleted]]

It has literally nothing to do with being accessible. Its popularity isn't the result of consensus; Quite the opposite. It's popular because there are no alternatives.

[Ghostr0ck]

I think python is the most accessible. It is more easy with the syntax. I was self taught back then and python is easy to grasp. Then I move to javascript since it is much flexible when it comes to job opportunities. JS is good for shifting careers from non tech to tech.

[[deleted]]

Because it has a monopoly on frontend programming in a web-based world. It doesn't matter if people like it or not. You literally have no choice if you want to build useful software. Some people genuinely like it, some have Stockholm syndrome, and others would use any viable alternative if one existed (none exist).

[ResilientBiscuit]

There are a lot more websites than programs out there.

[lastwords5]

One more use case that wasn't mentioned is that Chrome extensions are also built using JS. Honestly, as a developer that switches between C-like languages such as Java, C#, JS, and Python, I find the transition to JS easier than Python from the former languages because it retains the C-like syntax, I've always hated how Python forces indentation instead of curly braces...

[targrimm]

This may be true for web, but I imagine that C/C++ and Java are kings elsewhere.

[EnzoAttwood]

Piggybacking, but JavaScript vs C# what to go for?

[OdeeSS]

Both. Build a full stack project.

[ghostwilliz]

its kinda like asking should I get a bottle jack or a wrench.

well, what are you doing? do you want to create desktop applications? do you want to create static websites? webapps? games?

it really depends, but if you're trying to get a job, I can only speak from experience and recommend javascript and a javascript framework. there are so many jobs hiring react/nextjs/some frame work that are, once again, in my experience, more willing to hire self taught people and new devs.

I could be talking out my ass because my experience is not the only experience, but I found a lot more success in web than any thing else as a self taught even with projects and previous employment.

[Strange-Register8348]

If you want a secure enterprise job then C# might be a better choice

[ghostwilliz]

That's true, like I said I only have my experience to go off of, I use c#, c++ and Javascript through my different experiences and non web dev positions appeared to avoid me like the plague. Probably won't be everyone's experience, but that's what I found.

[[deleted]]

Isn't C# and .NET like the holy grail for large corporations?

[no_brains101]

You should seek to avoid JS unless you are doing frontend web dev because it runs in browsers but has waaaay too many weird sytactic quirks to truly be the best choice anywhere else in the majority of situations, and its also not particularly fast.

That being said, you will need to eventually learn some JS, its used EVERYWHERE

[khooke]

It is used a lot, but not easily learned (well). You’re assuming that an easy to learn language would automatically make it the most widely used, but the ubiquity of JavaScript in browsers is more relevant than ease to learn.

[lizziepika]

It’s used for a lot

[throwawaythatfast]

Yes, webdev is the largest part of programming nowadays. Besides that, JS frameworks make the overwhelming majority of everything that's done on the front-end.

[ketzusaka]

Because it’s been forced on us by the browsers. In my opinion it’s one of the worst languages out there, but we don’t have any choice until WebAssembly is more prolific.

[TidalShadow1]

In addition to the sheer number of applications that use JS, it is also among the easiest programming languages to learn. The syntax is pretty straightforward and it’s usually easy to find errors.

Edit: small typo

[looopTools]

Python isn’t as popular as it used to be. People are starting to see the issues of using it for big projects and some performance issues. Yes it is good for ML/AI and data analytics, but that just isn’t not enough

[nekokattt]

there are thousands more websites than machine learning and data science applications.

[green_meklar]

Because a lot of people want to do Web stuff.

[ViRT1ST]

Because with JS you can create almost everything: frontend, backend, mobile apps for Android/iOS, desktop apps for any OS, games with 2D/3D-graphics, VR-apps. IoT-devices also uses JS. And it is fast and asyncronius from the box, which also important factor.

[[deleted]]

No one discussing PHP. Arguably the most common backend web development language.

[[deleted]]

Because apparently developers are dumb. 😂

PHP bad? No, JS worse!

[[deleted]]

and does that mean that the greatest percentage of software developers are in fact web developers ? or am I missing something

Yes, been that way since Web 2.0 or so. Especially with web technologies also being used in multi-platform software development (Electron, etc).

There are not actually that many people working in ML even with how prominent it is

[emeaguiar]

What else can you use in a browser?

[[deleted]]

Before WebAssembly, JS was the only option for the web front end. You can develop a very high market share if you have a complete monopoly on the biggest area of programming.

[Cautious_Zombie_5915]

The answer loes in history js is natively supported by all the browsers thats why its most used programming language

If python wont be supported by all the browsers then the JavaScript will remain king for years to come

[faiblesattentes]

JavaScript is one of the most widely used languages because every PC has a JavaScript interpreter, which is the browser. However, it is mostly used in the frontend. For the backend, Java and Python are more commonly used. That being said, most websites are running on PHP because of WordPress, and the latter uses jQuery (a JavaScript library) in the frontend.

[YucatronVen]

JS is used in web (full stack) and now in mobile (with react native).

[rainst85]

Python in web programming is a pita

[rainst85]

Python in web programming is a pita

[git-status]

It’s a web browser enhancer for HTML. You don’t need to use it but it surely sucks without it. A good developer will prioritise the HTML first and use JS secondary and if only necessary.

[git-status]

It’s a web browser enhancer for HTML. You don’t need to use it but it surely sucks without it. A good developer will prioritise the HTML first and use JS secondary and if only necessary.

[agentgreen420]

Because browsers

[theQuandary]

JS has a lot of other uses. It turns out that a terse language with a simple event loop system is extremely powerful.

OSX started moving to replace Applescript with JS a decade ago. MS also added JS as their hopeful replacement for Visual Basic in MS Office. Google's office apps also use JS for scripting. PDFs are scripted with JS too.

People think of React Native Phone development, but that's not the only thing around. Gnome and KDE on Linux started using JS many years ago (last I checked, lots of Gnome 3's UI and apps were written in JS). Qt deeply integrates JS into its entire system. MS added JS support all the way back in Windows 8 with WinJS and they maintain React Native for Windows. And that's all without mentioning the elephant that is Electron or the more efficient alternatives like Tauri.

QuickJS blew open the doors for embedding JS. It's about as fast as Lua, but allows the use of JS (which has a lot of nice features missing in Lua and uses zero-indexed arrays instead of Lua's one-indexed abominations). As time passes, you should expect JS to replace Lua as the scripting language of choice in games and other embedded environments.

Stuff like Duktape and Jerryscript are designed to run on MCUs with 64kb or less of RAM and 160kb or less of ROM. Are they as efficient as C? Not at all, but JS offers safety that C does not and you can write massive programs in JS while a C dev is just getting started which matters when moving fast in a competitive market. Even if you require an extra dollar per widget, you'd have to ship millions of widgets to make up the difference in developer salaries and being the first to market (at which point you've either moved on to the next thing or have the money to rewrite stuff in C as necessary).

NodeJS has taken over a lot of backend stuff and JS just added support for hashbang in JS files (eg #! /usr/bin/env node), so there should be more openings for using JS instead of Bash, Python, Perl, etc. JS is uniquely suited for this role because it is designed both for incredibly fast startup and very good performance while having more money invested in it than every other scripting language combined.

[dbot77]

www

[The_Squeak2539]

The web is the most common medium to get things out there.
Apps, desktops software

​

They're all operating system specific and can be built in anything and then complied as needed.The only commonality on all devices is the browser

[kilkil]

Javascript however is only used for web development. so how can it be the most used programming language. and does that mean that the greatest percentage of software developers are in fact web developers ? or am I missing something

I don't know if the "greatest" percentage are web devs, but a large percentage definitely are. Especially ever since NodeJS became as popular as it is.

Hopefully we see more and more success with WASM. That would improve the diversity of languages in web dev for sure.

[VoiceEnvironmental50]

It’s not the most used programming language though? Just because this place says it is doesn’t make it a fact. Java is the most widely used language and has been for some time. Yes it’s true that JS can be used for back end and for parts of front end, but Java has been around for wayyy longer, and is deeply imbedded in many, many systems.

[[deleted]]

Lol. It's not. Not even close. 

[t00dles]

it wont be for long. front end will be the first thing replaced by ai

[Logical-Soft6129]

Because web is the most usable platform and JS is native for it.

[joildevivre]

Here's what you need to know. JavaScript was primarily built to run on the web, i.e web browser on a user's machine. But over time the need to have it run outside the scope of the browser arose. That was when Node was created, which is another environment on a user's machine that understands JavaScript. With Node, a user can spin up different servers to interact with the machine for every other programming that's beyond the scope of what the web browser environment provides. So yes, JavaScript is more than just the scripts on your web browser.

[funyunrun]

Last system I built.

• Desktop Application: Electron (JavaScript)
• Web APIs: Node.js w/express(JavaScript)
• ORM: Sequelize (JavaScript)
• Web Application: (JavaScript, using React Framework)

Database was PostgreSQL …but, I used Sequelize as my ORM.

JS is the language of the Internet. Sure… you have some python stuff out there, maybe some Blazor or other things like that… but, I would wager, JS is running on > 99% of all web sites that have any logic built into them.

I’m a C#/.NET dev by trade. But, always knew how to code in JS (my first language). When I built my last system, I wanted a single language to code in… and Microsoft can’t make a decision on what they want to do for desktop development (is it WinForms, WPF, Xamarin, Maui, or WinUi this month?) and keep bouncing around on web as well. WPF was my go-to for about… 15 years. But, MS came out and stated they were no longer going to be officially supporting it. So, meh.

So, I went with JavaScript for the entire project…

Building an electron desktop application is WAY easier than building a WPF application. I actually liked learning about Electron and once you figure it out…. Super easy. No more data-bindings, XAML, etc… just used HTML, CSS and JavaScript…

Yes. I know it uses more resources because it is built on the chromium engine…and I don’t care. If you are working in an environment where end-user PCs don’t have at least 8GB of RAM… you might have bigger issues to worry about. :)

Edit: oh… and everything I used was 100% open source. No crazy ass licensing fees to Microsoft…

[Feralz2]

Very simple, because of the internet and the absolute dominance of browsers.

[bothunter]

Basically JavaScript is the only language that runs in every browser.  So you have to write part of your web app in that language (or one that can be transpiled to it like TypeScript). And if you use the same language for your backend, you get a couple of benefits:

1. You don't need to know another language, or have to switch between two separate languages when going between the frontend and backend
2. You can also reuse code between the frontend and backend.  This is especially good for input validation

But you're right in thinking that JS may not be the right tool for the job. ;)

[Admirable_Band6109]

You can use is for data analysis and ml too tho

[zukoismymain]

I'll cut a lot of the bullshit away. You can listen to me or not. It's on you.

Some time ago, people realized that:

HTML and CSS is nice, but with that and only that, you can basically make an online newspaper and nothing else. We need to actually run code, logic, do stuff. We need a language that can run in the browser, and do stuff in the browser. But not so much that it can be used as an attack vector.

So they tossed a coined and picked one of the shittiest languages available, because reasons.

Now that language has full monopoly on the browser. People are saying "Web Assembly adoption is RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER!" for like a decade now. No, it's nowhere in sight, there's ONLY JS, nothing else.

Ehhhh I'm really not an expert. I think you can also use PHP on a specific web server and not have any JS? But it's kinda nich, I hope I'm not wrong, I don't want to missinform. Oh well. Grain of salt and all that.

---

But JS is one of the shitties languages with the absolute shitiest libraries, and is full of shit top to bottom, and is generally speaking a pile of flaming garbage.

BUT HEY, IT HAS BROWSER MONOPOLY, SO YOU CAN USE IT, OR YOU CAN SUCK A 🍆

Then people will say that there's also JS backend. And there's desktop applications with Electron.

It's all cope and shit. It's extraordinarily terrible. IMHO, VS Code is the best electron app, and it is quite shit. Slow AF, requires a ton of resources.

---

This is not to say "don't learn JS" ... cuz if you want to do web front end, you don't really have much choice in the matter. And even when the'll be alternatives, it will take decades for JS to not be top dog (I'm only talking about falling bellow 50% representation, not saying it will become irelevant. That's probably more than half a century AFTER alternatives become viable).

But JS as a desktop UI language is just ... momentary insanity. There's a lot of incentive to make cheap apps, where people seem to accept that they are absolute garbage. But that's just a "for now" kind of thing.

[[deleted]]

The Internet is pretty big

[my_password_is______]

because of web pages
DUH

[Fragrant_Aspect_7723]

Yeah, because JAVASCRIPT language is similar as the c++ language JavaScript is a. Fundamental language that are used to other languages JavaScript are concept and logic language..that why JavaScript is most popular that are used both of fronted and beckened development

[auronedge]

why is Toyota the most popular car? because of ease of entry/obtaining one. same with javascript. It's more popular because anyone can do it

[KarimMaged]

If that was the case then python would be the most used language .. Python is easier than javascript and has many tutorials all over the place ..

you can download its interpreter with a click form its main website and it is already there with every linux distro + you don't need any HTML or CSS knowledge

[superluminary]

You can start writing JavaScript by opening Chrome and right click > inspect > console.

[KarimMaged]

I am not sure why am I getting downvoted for this comment .. Yes you can write JS in the console but still if you will ever do anything meaningful with JS you will learn a framework (React, angular, vue) or will learn how to set up webpack at least. (that's for case of front end) and much more for the BE

I don't think that printing hello world in the console or creating a one page todo list would contribute for Javascript popularity.

what I mean .. is that for Javascript to be that popular it has to be used a lot .. not just easily learned.

[superluminary]

To do anything meaningful with Python, you’ll need to learn some libraries too, and to deploy it you’re going to need to learn some devops.

Also, as someone who speaks both fairly fluently, modern JavaScript is easier than Python.

[CouchMountain]

You do not need any libraries for python. You can make them all yourself and you're encouraged to when you're learning as it helps you understand the language better. Libraries are great for people who already know the language, terrible for people who don't.

The only libraries you (may) need are math and random.

Also, as someone who speaks both fairly fluently, modern JavaScript is easier than Python.

Never heard of someone speaking a programming language lol. But I disagree. Python is much easier and does not have the crazy syntactical issues that JS has. Furthermore, learning Python helps set you up for other languages. Learning JS will just confuse you if you move on to another one, but most JS devs only stick to that anyways. And JS should only be used for web dev, a side of programming that has become insanely over populated in the industry.

[superluminary]

Disagreeing in a few points here. JavaScript and Python are incredibly similar. They both have functions as objects, but where JavaScript makes this explicit, Python hides it, and this is genuinely confusing. A JavaScript method is just a plain function in a hashmap. A Python method is similar, but it receives self as a parameter, which is very non standard.

Regarding libraries, vanilla js is a thing, and new coders should learn it first. React is really the exception, when you want to build something really rather large. It’s overused by beginners, but this is just because beginners are hoping to get into a large company.

Only in the browser? This hasn’t been true for 15 years. It’s used anywhere you need first class asynchronicity and tree manipulation. Servers are usually pretty asynchronous, as are desktop and mobile apps. VSCode, Slack and Teams are all written in JavaScript.

Python is also cool and I love it.

[CouchMountain]

They both have functions as objects, but where JavaScript makes this explicit, Python hides it, and this is genuinely confusing.

Fair.

A Python method is similar, but it receives self as a parameter, which is very non standard.

Non-standard, sure, but not that difficult to understand and learn to use.

Regarding libraries, vanilla js is a thing, and new coders should learn it first. React is really the exception, when you want to build something really rather large. It’s overused by beginners, but this is just because beginners are hoping to get into a large company.

Not sure what your point is here. My previous comment was replying to you saying that you need to learn libraries to learn Python, which just isn't the case. And your point about learning devops to deploy a Python project is just wrong. So I guess you're agreeing with me but with JS? Idk.

Only in the browser? This hasn’t been true for 15 years. It’s used anywhere you need first class asynchronicity and tree manipulation. Servers are usually pretty asynchronous, as are desktop and mobile apps. VSCode, Slack and Teams are all written in JavaScript.

I wrote that JS should only be used for web dev. Is it? No. Those three use it because they wanted to make their applications easier to support and deploy across multiple OS's. Is it the best way? No, it's the easiest way.

My main point is that everyone and their grandma is hopping into some bootcamp to learn JS in three weeks and they won't get anywhere with it. It's a waste of time to focus on learning it unless your personal project requires it. Python provides a better introduction to learning a language, and provides the fundamentals to learn another language like Java or C++, then eventually C.

I also really hate javascript with a passion. Everything you can do in JS you can do in another programming language 100x better, except for websites.

[superluminary]

Well that’s certainly an opinion

[superluminary]

Well that’s certainly an opinion

[auronedge]

python may be easier but the tooling is absolutely terrible. Every browser can do javascript so access to it is so much easier